September 17

Ninth Tuesday after Trinity

Neither be ye idolaters. 1 Corinthians 10:7.

THE perfection of Christian life is to be filled with the Spirit of Christ. His Spirit must inspire all we do, and breathe upon our most trifling actions. Christ has a right over all our actions, inasmuch as He is the Head over our body. The only return He asks for all His watchful loving care is that you on your part give a watchful loving heed not to displease Him in those trifles which once you would scarce have noticed. The greater God's love for any soul, the greater is the perfection He requires of that soul. "Be ye perfect, even as your Father Which is in heaven is perfect." Do not hinder His work; and if you have been faithless, "your own vineyard you have not kept," confess it in loving penitence, and without delay seek to rule your life according to that higher standard. Meditate upon S. Peter's words, "The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God." And surely those who by their holy calling are dedicated to Him, members of Christ, children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven, are above all those to whom these words apply. Awful indeed will that judgment be to those who having heard His call, yet have neglected to serve Him absolutely and with every nerve even in little things.

When the threefold Name was spoken, When the sacred sign was made, When upon our brows the token Of our baptism was laid,

Threefold was the sacred promise, To renounce, believe, and do; God of mercy, turn not from us When those vows we here renew.